My friend taught me some book binding and we each made 4 sketchbooks.
The covers are mixed media artworks in themselves, we made them with acrylic paint, paint pens, and stencils. We made them during a heatwave so the paint dried very quickly and it was easy to do lots of layers. Silver linings :). They all have buttons and ribbons to fasten them closed. They are all filled with different kinds of paper to create different artistic challenges.
Sketchbook 1: Wondrous Skies
For my first sketchbook I made a cover with a sort of sunset inspired colour palette and filled it with black paper, black card, and black watercolour paper. As it is so colourful, I used this multicoloured ribbon to close it. I did night sky inspired art in it. You can see what that looks like here.
Sketchbook 2: Plant Life
For my second sketchbook, I made a cover with a gold/brown and hot pink colour palette. I filled this one with tracing paper and I drew various plant forms in it. I created a sleek look with this one by cutting straight edges and using black as a contrasting colour. I am proud of how professional this one looks. You can see inside it here.
Sketchbook 3: Illustration Diary
For my third sketchbook, I used bright primary colours. Each colour was applied with a different technique. First, the cyan which I applied using a sponge to make blurred splodge patters. Then I applied the yellow using a scraper and creating wavy patterns. Finally, the pink which I applied using a stencil. As pink is the top colour, and I applied it in only small areas with a stencil that gives it all sharp edges, it stands out the most, so I decide to use pink as an accent colour, giving the sketchbook pink stitching, a pink ribbon, and a pink button. I filled this sketchbook with card of various colours, and then I used it as an illustration diary. You can see inside it when I publish the dedicated post for it.
Sketchbook 4: Nature? tbc
For my final sketchbook, I did many layers of painting natural forms, primarily using stencils and paint pens. I used brown stitching for this one and a scraggly brown string along with a pretty wooden button which all complement the natural aesthetic. It is filled with yellowish card. I had a lot of fun making this one. I haven’t done art in it yet. I am thinking of doing something naturey, maybe landscapes, maybe bugs or other creatures
Reflection
I have never actually done themed sketchbooks before (other than for school projects) so this was a fun experiment for me. I am proud of myself for seeing it through to the end, and I like seeing all the things I have made. It is satisfying to have a sketchbook that is in itself a whole contained project. It also often posed the challenge of “well, I have this many pages left, so I am going to have to come up with more ideas on the theme to fill them” which made me stretch my creativity and make things that I wouldn’t have made without those constraints, with many results I am proud of :).
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